Violence erupts in Belfast as 10th IRA striker dies

By
With Analysis from Monitor Correspondents Around The World,
Edited BY Clara Germani /
August 21, 1981

Belfast

Violence exploded in reaction to the death Thursday of IRA hunger striker Michael Devine, the 10th to starve himself to death in a campaign started by jailed guerrillas for reforms in the Maze prison, outside Belfast.

Devine's passing came minutes after voting began in an election to choose a parliamentary successor to Bobby Sands, the first IRA member who starved himself to death.

Police said a British soldier was shot and wounded, hundreds of Molotov cocktails were thrown at police, and dozen of vehicles hijacked and set afire in rioting that followed Mr. Devine's death. Six other IRA prisoners remain on the hunger strike.